It is often desirable to provide neat, uniform edges to various beds, walkways, foundations, water features and other such landscaping elements of manicured lawns, gardens and the like. In the past, various apparatuses have been used to assist in defining such edges, to prevent soil and groundcover creep, erosion, and loss of edge definition, and to make it easier to maintain a groomed outdoor space.
Several common designs exist in the prior art offering a robust barrier to soil and groundcover movement by way of rigid strips of various configurations. While these devices provide sufficient strength, they often lack the ability to easily create smooth, curved edging, or require curved sections to be preformed to the specifications of the landscape design prior to installation. These types of edging devices are often constructed of rigid metals, alloys or plastics.
Yet other proposed prior art solutions have attempted to solve these problems by teaching the application of edging devices made of extruded, pliable material so that desired curved edges may be formed, and in order to allow the devices to be packaged in coiled, space-saving configurations. These types of edging device are commonly constructed as elongated, generally rectangular shaped extrusions. These devices, however, often lack the strength necessary to maintain edge lines for extended periods of time.
The aforementioned edging devices also lack the ability to provide space between groundcover and the landscaping element being edged. Such functionality is desired, for instance, when edging is installed against foundations in order to cover the soil in the area of curtilage immediately surrounding the structure which may be inaccessible to lawn mowers. Attempts in the prior art to overcome such deficiencies have included the addition of a horizontal base portion to cover such widths of soil, but do not provide users with the ability to easily form any desired sharp angle or curve without resorting to the purchase or creation of multiple sections of various geometries in order to achieve a desired edging line. Some devices—such as those intended for use as paver restraint edging or foundational edging—may be usable for straight sections and gradual curves, but cannot also provide sharp angles or curves that may be desired by a user.
Furthermore, no devices available today enable a user to apply pre-manufactured edging that provides aesthetically pleasing visual elements while maintaining a user's ability to create fully customized edge lines without the need to purchase and integrate various preformed edge elements, such as curves of various radii, straight sections, sharp angles and the like.
It is therefore an unmet need in the prior art for a lawn edging device that provides, in a single embodiment, the ability to form any geometric edging shape/line while providing strength, horizontal soil covering, aesthetic elements, adjustable height and length, and that may be used against permanent or semi-permanent structures such as buildings, walkways or other masonry, or around beds, gardens or other non-structural features alike.